Garrett McNamara Conquers Massive Wave In Portugal; Is It a Record Breaker? (VIDEO)

Last year Garrett McNamara, a Hawaiian surfer who reportedly has a home in L.A., set the Guinness World record for biggest wave ever ridden after he was towed into a 78-foot face at Cortes Bank off the coast of San Diego.

This week McNamara topped himself and gave biggest-wave bragging rights to ... Portugal? Yes, Portugal.

Here's Garrett:

The ride happened Monday at Nazare, Portugal. McNamara was "towed in" via jet-ski. (Waves that big are virtually impossible to "paddle into," although there is a school of surfing that respects the old way).

Reports are estimating that the wave in question has a 100-foot face.

However, Pat Caldwell, a friend of McNamara's and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer, told U.S. News & World Report he thinks the wave is more like a 60-footer.

Dennis Romero is an L.A. Weekly staff writer. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.